The job would be difficult.
“The United States at that time was a financial basket case.”
Business historian John Steele Gordon wrote a book about Hamilton.
“There was no real money supply. In the colonial days they had used a hodgepodge of coins from British, and Spanish, and Portuguese, and what have you. It was a very chaotic system.”
In other words, there was no such thing yet as American money. John Steele Gordon says America also had to borrow heavily to pay for the Revolutionary War. The new nation was deeply in debt. It had to find ways to bring in money and pay what it owed.
One way to get money was to borrow it. But no one wanted to lend money to the United States unless they were sure they would get it back. So, the Congress asked Treasury Secretary Hamilton to write a report about how to build up the government's credit.
Hamilton's report said the government must pay back the full amount of all its debts. This caused a dispute.
Many of the debts were in the form of government notes. The notes promised to pay someone for supplying food, clothing and weapons to the rebel army. Some promised to pay soldiers for joining the army.
The notes, however, were really worth nothing. The wartime Congress had no money. People who got them lost hope of ever getting repaid. So they sold them to anyone willing to pay even part of the value.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25